Jesse Lonis started his poker career playing low-stakes events as recently as 2018, and only recorded his first six-figure score in a World Poker Tour (WPT) event in early 2021. Today, he is one of the biggest names in tournament poker, and on a path to become a true poker legend.
Over the scope of just eight days, Lonis dominated the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Budva, Montenegro, and added more than $5 million in cashes and two prestigious titles to his impressive poker resume.
This put his overall tournament earnings to just over $20,000,000 in just under four years, a number few other players in the game can match.
Following such an impressive Triton Poker showing, Jesse will be entering this year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP), which is currently kicking off in Las Vegas, with even more confidence than he usually exhibits at the poker tables.
With outstanding results over the last couple of years, the big question is whether this can be the year of Jesse Lonis at the WSOP and just how well he can do facing bigger fields and more amateur competition at the World Series.
Two WSOP Bracelets in Just Four Years
Having only played tournament poker for a few years, Jesse has already done more in the game than most of his competitors who have been around for decades.
On the WSOP front, he has only been competing since 2020, when he recorded his first WSOP cashes in a couple of low-stakes online events during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The very next year, Lonis had a chance to win his first WSOP bracelet, coming second in a $1k NLH event, and making a few other deep runs.
His astronomic rise to the top continued in 2022, and this time around he was able to add a WSOP bracelet to his portfolio, winning the $1k 6-Max event at WSOP.com, while also recording another second place in an online event.
His second WSOP bracelet, and first won at the live felt, came in the $50k High Roller at the 2023 WSOP, as Jesse had already climbed to the highest stakes and was a regular in high roller tournaments.
This win earned him a $2.3 million payday, the biggest of his poker career before last week, when he won $3.44 million outright in the Triton Poker Main Event in Montenegro.
While two WSOP bracelets may not be an impressive number compared to some of his rivals, the short span in which he won them and his outstanding results across other tournament series demonstrated both Jesse’s incredible talent and his willingness to learn and adapt to different situations and environments.
His incredible climb to the top is made even more impressive by the fact that he comes from a modest upbringing, making the wins even more valuable and his entire career an even bigger achievement.
A Dominant Display in Montenegro
Lonis has only played three Triton Poker festivals in his short career, but already has three trophies and 12 cashes to his name, good for $8.36 million.
A huge chunk of this number came from his outstanding performance at the Montenegro festival just last week, where he won two events, recorded five cashes, and took home more than $6 million.
His festival started with a small cash in the $25k Global Slam event, followed by a victory in the $25k Mystery Bounty, which earned him more than $600k in prize money and more than $800k in bounties.
He played the $200k NLH Invitational event as well, but busted before the money, before coming fourth in the $50k 7-handed event eventually won by Dominykas Mikolaitis from Lithuania.
Jesse’s big day came on May 21st, when he was able to outlive a field of 180 runners and take home the biggest prize of his career, worth over $3.4 million.
On his way there, he defeated a stacked final table, and demonstrated he has what it takes to compete at any level and against all types of competition, with both recreational and professional poker players represented in the field.
Lonis used his aggressive and fearless style of poker to dominate the fields for a week straight, as his fearless plays continued to strike the fear into the bones of his opponents.
Lonis Set to Dominate the 2025 WSOP
The 2025 WSOP is here, and Jesse Lonis enters it as one of the hottest players on the circuit, having already won several major events in 2025 alone.
As the Series kicks off, it is likely that Jesse will be in Vegas for the duration and chasing his third, and perhaps even fourth bracelet in all NLH events across the summer.
His impressive performances in high roller events across different tours will make him a favorite to win a bracelet in one of the many high stakes bracelet events on this year’s WSOP schedule.
While his biggest opportunities are sure to come in these, Lonis is likely to compete in the more “open” events as well, where he may have to beat hundreds or even thousands of players to reach the final table.
His past performances have demonstrated that he has what it takes to push his way through massive fields as well, giving him a real chance for some deep runs in the lower stakes NLH events throughout the WSOP.
The one bad news for Jesse is that he won’t be able to compete in the various mixed game events, which take up a good chunk of the 100 WSOP bracelets that will be given away this summer.
Yet, the WSOP is scheduled with NLH specialists in mind, with at least one NLH event on the schedule most days, allowing the likes of Jesse Lonis to compete virtually without any breaks.
While some help from the deck will certainly be needed, Jesse Lonis will easily be one to watch in this year’s WSOP, as his “street poker” skills are certain to give a hard time to even the most hardened pros this summer.
